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The Jefferson Davis Anniversary 
Celebration 

To The Confederate Veterans Association 
of Waverly, Alabama, June 3, 1908 



By WILLIAM HOLCOMBE THOMAS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

More than twenty years ago I went out from the dear 
old red hills of East Alabama, to the serious battle of life. 
In what small degree I have succeeded I lay it to the les- 
sons of patience, industry, kindness and honesty of pur- 
pose you tried to teach me in my early years. "When 
your invitation came, I could only regret that it found 
me so engaged with the Equity docket of the City Court 
of Montgomery that I could do no more than write my 
poor words expressive of the sentiment of the occasion. 

I trust that the United Daughters of the Confederacy 
will hand on to the childhood of the county, the nobility 
of character of the old South and its highest example of 
patriotism and purity of womanhood. I trust that the 
camps of Confederate veterans and camps of Sons of 
Confederate veterans will ever inspire that patriotism 
to highest effort in doing the work of the day and will 
never do aught to drag down the ideals of Southern man- 
hood and womanhood to the commercialized basis that 
I fear is too much taking hold in some sections of this 
Union. 






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My countrymen, the world has always done honor to 
the hero. Your patriotic orders have brought together 
this splendid citizenship to do honor to our hero. 
Where the "Surging billows dash the white sands at 
Beauvoir," there lived an aged and careworn man to 
whom the impartial historian will accord a place with 
the great and wise of earth. For many years he trod 
alone the "paths of our defeat," his motives misunder- 
stood by those who did not lend an understanding ear; 
patiently bearing the taunts and jeers heaped upon us 
by those who would clothe our defeat in dishonor. Yet 
his pure and spotless character was vindicated in the 
purity of his long life; in his patience, forbearance and 
charity for the lack of charity in others; in the ease, 
the grace, and native dignity with which he "bowed his 
neck to receive and wear the yoke of disfranchisement 
placed thereon by the hands of the uncharitable." And 
when, a few years before his death, this aged chieftain 
made a pilgrimage through the South to his ancient cap- 
ital, all along the route at every wayside and station 
came flocking crowds to do him the honor of their pres- 
ence. The young, the old, the rich and poor, the pauper 
and peasant were there. Silvered age and blooming 
youth, budding manhood and womanhood, all joined in 
a surging crowd, striving to get one fleeting glance, or 
catch a single word falling from the lips of the grand 
old man. The aged, the crippled, the blind and empty 
sleeved veterans came also, and fired by the encouraging 
presence of their chieftain, greeted him with voices 
rising heavenward in such a Confederate yell as was 
heard on a hundred battlefields. And we will ever trans- 
mit with tender and loving care to posterity the name of 
him whose anniversary we celebrate today — and the 
name of Jefferson Davis is a patrimony to preserve. 



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_3— 

WHAT OF THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER OF 
HISTORY. 

The heroic figure of the Confederate soldier, as pre- 
sented to the world by the dispassionate historian, can 
but gain the admiration of his enemies. There may be 
those who differed from him politically, those who from 
self-interest or prejudice would deny him the laurel he 
hath so dearly won because thinking for himself, he 
opposed encroachment upon the constitutional guarantee 
of Local Self Government. "Yet even those doubting his 
cause can never doubt him." To well do they remember 
how, like a rushing torrent, he swept before him their 
mighty army from off the plains of Manassas, and spread 
consternation throughout their capital. Too well do they 
remember with what results they met at Winchester, 
Cross Keys, and Port Republic; and how Stonewall 
Jackson fell upon and took 11,000 prisoners at Harper's 
Ferry, crossed the Potomac into Maryland. Nor will 
they soon forget the few who drove back the many of the 
foe at Fredericksburg and at Sharpsburg, who won glo- 
rious victories at Kernstown and Monocacy, "grappled 
with death in the Wilderness," and defeated "the finest 
army on the planet" at Chancellorsville. Nay, more, with 
admiration do they remember, as with the impetus of a 
mighty hurricane, the boys in Gray a second time de- 
feated and whirled into a disorderly retreat their well 
equipped and well drilled armies, adding new glories to 
the chaplet of laurel stripped from the historic fields of 
Manassas. Nor do they forget the many significant 
death-pauses when the muster roll was called after their 
"careless assaults at Spottsylvania," or success in Penn- 
sylvania, at Cold Harbor or New Market, along the rip- 
pling Rapidan, or on Mayre's Stony Heights, at Pitts- 
burgh, or after the awful slaughter at Petersburg, many 
a brave soldier in Blue answered not, his going to pitch 



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his tent "on Fame's eternal camping ground," was a sad 
but immortal monument of glory of the valor of the 
Southern soldier. 

FOUR YEARS AGAINST FEARFUL ODDS. 

Four awful years did he fight against fearful odds, 
not only defending his home, but invaded the enemy's 
territory. For four years, almost without a navy, did 
her so-called "pirate boats" walk the blue waves as a 
thing of life, wrapping many a graceful merchantman 
fresh from the pine and spruce forests of the North in 
fiery winding sheets, sending a paralytic stroke to the 
heart of Northern commerce. The story of his brav- 
ery, on five hundred stormy fields, will ever be told by 
the eloquence of every graveyard from Oak Hill to the 
Rio Grande. And every brook and stream or rolling hill 
or lofty mountain peak, shall each to posterity transmit 
the name of some soldier boy nourished there, who, 
when his country called, angled no more the silvered 
trout, or chased the timid hare, nor leaped again in child- 
ish sport from rock to clift, but went forth, as he under- 
stood, to protect a nation's honor by preventing the in- 
fringement of solemn agreements it had sworn to hold 
inviolate; to defend the Constitution, and to strike the 
serpent of centralization that he feared would draw its 
coils more tightly around the nation, crushing individual 
industry and political rights. 

GLORIOUS MEMORIES. 

There is that within each manly breast causing him 
to write on memory's tablets in loving characters, the 
deeds of noble defenses for the principles and customs 
of his home. The man lacking this is not the man he 
should be. The Irishman would be less Irish were his 



Celtic lay to give place to the English melody, nor will 
the child of the Alps cease loving to hear the dreadful 
roar as "from peak to peak leaps the live thunder." But 
it is natural. The true-hearted Southerner w^ill not cease 
to hear the sublime but truly awful roll of Fort Donel- 
son's bombardment, or soon forget the hard-fought but 
glorious battle of Bull Run, where many a true and gal- 
lant boy from the land of sunshine and of snow, lay down 
to sleep together. What a fratricidal scene! Born of 
the same parents; children of the same household; alike 
indomitable; and died by each other's hand. Oh, broth- 
ers at the North! join with us today in "gracing their 
memory with an elegy of words and tears." 

Shall memory soon be overcome in Oblivion's slow 
and silent stream, losing in sweet forgetfulness the sub- 
lime lessons of duty, equally exemplified in the trenches 
at Vicksburg, at Corinth, where the Rappahannock's 
crimson waters roll, or on the twin hills of Gettysburg. 
Shall the Southern heart cease to beat in harmonious 
accord with the spirit that urged on their hardy few 
"through the mazes of superior generalship" in the Vir- 
ginia campaigns, or signalling the bravery of fame's 
eternal Chickamauga? Will that mother ever forget the 
darling blue-eyed boy, with brow so fair with maiden 
gentleness, who at martial duty's call was transformed 
into a type of manly beauty and went forth a peace- 
offering for his country? Will not the fair young wife, 
now grown gray with the sorrows of widowhood and the 
cares of orphanage, make a yearly pilgrimage to her 
shrine, laden with the trophies of springtime, to place 
tokens of remembrance on the soldier's grave? Shall 
we ever cease reading with effect the inscriptions on 
the ten thousand little doors of eternity, opening on every 
hillside and dale, from the mighty Mississippi to the val- 
ley of the Shenandoah, or shut our ears to the historic 



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lessons taught by those whose "tongues are now string- 
less instruments," and who will 

A golden drift thro' all the song." 
►"Speak to the ages with 

SHILOH CHURCH. 

There are many never-to-be-forgotten scenes in the 
brilliant but bloody panorama of our historic Rembrandt. 
I would have you look as I draw the curtain. Behold a 
little log house on an elevated plateau, embowered by tall 
oaks and shut in by thick brush-wood — without doors or 
windows — as open as the hearts of the good Christians 
who come yearly to worship in this rustic sanctuary. 
This is Shiloh Church. It is the Sabbath day^ fresh with 
the breath of springtime — "the sweet rich voice of the 
morning songster filled the air with melody" — all is 
lovely and Godlike. But hark! The onslaught is ter- 
rible, avalanche-like two contending armies rush to bat- 
tle, the roar of cannon, the peal of musketry, the wound- 
ed charger, rushing madly without the master's guiding 
hand, the groan of the dying, the thick sulphurous 
smoke, the din and clangor of war has hushed the little 
songster and changed the Sabbath's quiet into a revelry 
of Pandemonium. Fire and smoke, storm of rage, death 
and the dying, confusion worse confounded before on 
earth was never. Albert Sydney Johnston falls, Beau- 
regard presses on more vehemently against a like vehe- 
ment foe, till nature drew the veil of night over her 
fair countenance, that the cooling dews of Heaven may 
quench the torrent fires of men's minds inflamed, or the 
gentle zephyrs before the morning's dawn may tense 
and attune the heart-strings of humanity. But night 
only gave preparation for a more deadly warfare, which 
raged continually and more fiercely throughout this sec- 



—1— 

ond day, until nature again closing her eyes on tke agon- 
izing scene, shed copious tears which fell like a soothing 
portion to the dying soldier. And remembering the de- 
parted heroes of the battle of Shiloh, what wonder that 
we hold them in hallowed memory. 

DESTINY DECREES DEFEAT. 

But the God of Battle, seemed to have ordained other- 
wise than that the Sons of the Confederacy be crowned 
with success. And if his soul-stirring shouts of victory 
were echoed along the slopes of the Cumberland moun- 
tains, or up the sides of the joyous Kennesaw, yet the 
ominous dirge of slowly retreating armies was heard 
after the conflict at Shiloh, at Nashville and Bowling 
Green, Kentucky. 

Defeat was the test-tube in which the nobility of char- 
acter was tried. As the smelting furnace tests the 
purity of metals, so was the Confederate soldier sorely 
tried by a great disparity of numbers, and a greater 
desparity in arms and munitions of war ; by grim, gaunt 
and ghastly hunger, that dimmed the lustre of the eye 
and paled the rosy cheek of health, by the snows pow- 
dering their uncovered heads, and the raging wind^ 
chilling and fevering their ill-clad bodies. Away from 
home and prayerful mother; away from loving wife and 
children needful of paternal care and protection; away 
as a volunteer fighting for home and country, and not 
as a hierling, hazarding his life for the paltry wages. 
"His many long forced marches in cold and heat and 
storm, his bravery in the danger of battle, his fortitude 
in bearing his aches and pains and agony of wounds, 
his hopefulness in disaster and defeat, his fidelity to 
principle and trust in God," has written his name in the 
archives of the reunited nation as a beloved son in whom 
she is well pleased. Now the brother from the North, 



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understanding the principles and motives that instigated 
the South to action, is glad to grasp her sons by the 
hand "as worthy the name of an American and a 
brother." 

GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 

Many pen-portraits may be drawn that would be ap- 
preciated by a Southern heart. I could speak of a life, 
in the language of Montesque, as a "hymn in praise of 
humanity." I could point to his superior military 
genius, to the last sad scene at Appomattox, where he 
bore himself with a fearless mien, and a dignity becom- 
ing the surrender of the hopes of his people; could point 
to the sweet and hearty sympathy as he bade his army 
"an affectionate farewell"; at this faithful devotion to 
the duties of peace, and in this you would see a life that 
belongs not alone to the South, for the life of Robert E. 
Lee belongs to America, in the same sense that Nelson 
or Wellington are of England. 

WHY THE SOUTH WITHDREW FROM THE UNION. 

What, then, of the cause for which we fought? There 
were different views from different standpoints. Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne says: "The Southern man will say 
we fight for State's rights, liberty and independence. 
The middle western man will vow that he fights for the 
Union; while the Northern and Eastern man will swear 
that from the beginning his only idea was the annihi- 
lation of slavery." We, of course, know the South with- 
drew from the Union not with a spirit of rebellion, but 
because she believed her wishes had been disregarded, 
her constitutional guarantees had been trampled under 
the heel of majorities, because it was thought that sec- 
tional legislation by those having no similar interest 
with the people of the South, was fast driving wealth 



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from her soft and genial clime, her generous and fruit- 
ful soil, to the regions north of the Potomac. This it 
was that drove us from the house of our fathers, and go- 
ing, we carried the love of law and order, wisdom, jus- 
tice and moderation— the heritage of Patrick Henry and 
Thomas Jefferson. 

DUTY OF TODAY. 

My countrymen, the hallowed voices of Davis and Lee 
and the graves of the Southern sons killed in our civil 
war speak to you each day of duty. For we are back in 
the Union again, not to forget traditions, not to forget 
our noble ideals, but to do our duties in home and church 
and State. This mission is filled with great responsi- 
bility to the American nation. 

If there is a delusion of wealth in the United States 
that is trying the manhood of a nation we still know that 
honor is above price; if with vast property rights come 
power and responsibility we know that it must not ignore 
character and individual effort. If the corporation has 
vested rights that are conflicting with individual effort 
we know that when properly regulated it is a valuable aid 
to the efforts of the individual. With this complex re- 
lation we recognize that the corporation's rights must be 
just as secure as the individual's and that individual 
rights must ever be kept as secure as the corporation's ; 
that the domain of corporate activity shall be business 
and that the rights of the individual in political life is 
supreme. 

The manhood of the South sees grave dangers in the 
government giving exact data to the manipulators of 
prices of cotton and other raw materials in the hands of 
the producer and in failing to protect the producers 
against manipulated prices and failing to give them back 
the information of the stored raw material or finished 



—10- 



product in the hands of the merchant, factor or factory. 

The South sees a menace in the frequent contests of 
labor and capital, but will give her aid to right adjust- 
ments that must be made without interruption and suf- 
ferings. 

If there is a menace of privilege taking hold in the na- 
tion, the result of selfish protection laws putting com- 
merce above manhood, the South, we believe, has tried 
to be true to her ideals of manhood and the responsibility 
of the individual. 

If the home is being attacked in America, as I tried on 
yesterday to show in m.y address to the Birmingham Col- 
lege, it will be found in the tendencies of the people to 
drift from the farm to cities, from separate dwellings 
to boarding houses and tenements, in the 72,000 divorces 
and 875,000 annual marriages; in the extravagant tastes 
and luxurious manners of the people, and their ready 
adoption of fads and slavish adherence to style; in the 
increasing summer and winter resorts idea; making 
home transitory; in the restless running here and there 
by easy transportations; in the expenditiure for tobacco 
and strong drink of $1,993,000,000 and only $257,000,000 
for home and foreign church work; in a jewelry, milli- 
nery, confectionary and chewing-gum bill of $969,000,000 
and the sum of $338,216,000 for education; in the in- 
vasion of the home by modern industry; the diminishing 
birth rates, and the story that is told in the marriage 
each year of only three per cent of the unmarried popu- 
lation fifteen years of age and over; in a rate of divorce 
increase in each five year period of about thirty per cent, 
in the last decade is more than three times the increase 
of population; this condition is largely the result of an 
unhealthy commercialism that we believe has taken 
slighter root with us than with other sections of the 
nation. The ideal American home will be found not far 
from the firesides, and in the true and contented wives^ 



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the honest and ambitious sons and the virtuous and in- 
dustrious daughters of the middle classes of the South. 

If these are base political methods, vexing the nation, 
we know that the South is putting into such questions 
her best thought and honesty of purpose to keep the 
sources of politics pure, to have a right administration 
of the affairs of State, and to keep her municipal life 
from the scandals that come daily from municipal life 
in other sections. 

I take pleasure in saying here that we all recognize 
that we are a part of the Union, even though we have 
little part in the administrations of the affairs of the na- 
tion. In the future we intend to have a larger share in 
trying to make things go right in America, and are be- 
gining at home, by trying to settle our own peculiar prob- 
lems right. We will demand our recognition as individ- 
uals of honest purpose, and our recognition as a section 
whose millions of produce gives this nation its balance of 
trade against the world. 

Of late, our customs and sentiments are being consid- 
ered and our rights more nearly recognized. The Presi- 
dents of the United States are showing considerations 
and the senators and members of congress from other 
sections are less denunciatory. A little while ago a peace 
monument was built at Chickamauga, the captured flags 
of the Confederacy returned, and the name of Jefferson 
Davis restored to its place on Cabin John's Bridge in the 
District of Columbia by order of Mr. Roosevelt just be- 
fore retiring from the office of President. 

If we have been misunderstood in the past, by our ef- 
forts for the betterment of all mankind we will be under- 
stood in the future. If we have been humiliated in the 
past, we will be honored in the future in exact propor- 
tion as we develop the magnificent resources of the South 
and settle aright her questions of grave responsibility. 
If our manhood of the past was doubted every soldier's 



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grave in the nation is a silent and pathetic witness of 
bravery. If the Sons of the Confederate soldier be ques- 
tioned, witness their going to other sections of the nation 
and taking a place in the arts, sciences, commerce and 
literature. If the womanhood of the Nation be threat- 
ened by the invasion of modern industry and other se- 
ducing ills from wifehood and motherhood, I believe the 
nation's hope for the motherhood of the future will 
not be more secure than in the happy wives and daugh- 
ters of the South. 

I will not weary you with gratulation but it is well 
to take hope from the past, that we may see in dangers 
to be corrected opportunity for manhood, to see in un- 
developed resources opportunity for a high minded com- 
merce and business, to see in boys and girls opportunity 
for education and religion. 

The pleasure of meeting with you on this anniversary 
of Mr. Davis will not be full if I do not leave with you 
the sentiment that the nation's hope is in the middle class 
where is usually found the gold of character. I will 
be glad if from anything I have said one boy or girl 
should come to sing with Frank L. Stanton that 
Back of the gloom — 

The bloom! 
Back of the strife — 
Sweet life, 
And flowering meadows that glow and gleam 
Where the winds sing joy and daisies dream, 
And the sunbeams color the quickening clod, 
And faith in the future and trust in God. 
Back of the gloom — 
The bloom! 



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